Texas Rangers Week in Review: Who’s Hot, Who’s Not

Jun 5, 2015; Kansas City, MO, USA; Texas Rangers starting pitcher

Chi Chi Gonzalez

(21) delivers a pitch against the Kansas City Royals in the first inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

1. Chi Chi Gonzalez

Gonzalez made his first start of the season against the Boston Red Sox last Saturday and pitched 5.2 shutout innings and got the win. Rangers fans everywhere started to get excited about this new, young pitcher but many wanted to see how he would perform in his next starts to begin to judge him.

Gonzalez pitched his second start last night and had even more success against an even better lineup. Gonzalez faced off against one of the league’s best lineups in the Kansas City Royals and pitched 9 shutout innings, giving up just three hits and striking out two. He has now won both of his first two starts and has yet to give up a run in his first 14.2 innings of big league pitching. Gonzalez pitched 116 pitches last night but the team is clearly confident that he can handle that amount of pitches due to being just 23 years old and has only thrown more than 100 pitches three times in the minors this season.

Gonzalez will likely make his next start this week against the Athletics in what will be his first start against a division rival. Look for Gonzalez to continue to have success but be prepared that at some point this season he will likely give up a run or even more than three hits in a start. While it is still too early to project a Hall of Fame career based on two wins, it would be equally unrealistic to predict a total failure if he was to have a slightly less successful start.

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